Shuswap Grill Gourmet Burgary employees Travis Kuchta and Dolena Koenig pose for a photograph with the giant decorative burger which was taken from outside the restaurant in early February and then returned about a week later. (Jim Elliot/Salmon Arm Observer)

Stolen hamburger returned to B.C. restaurant with side of shame

Staff at the Shuswap Grill Gourmet Burgary have no beef with the person who took home one of the restaurant’s giant decorative hamburger now that it has been returned.

On Feb. 4, employees of the Salmon Arm restaurant went outside after the dinner rush and found the oversized faux burger had been taken from beside the dumpsters near the restaurant’s kitchen entrance.

A call was put out to the public to keep an eye out for the stolen sandwich, and it was not missing for very long.

Restaurant employee Dolena Koenig said about a week after the burger was taken, a man called the Burgary saying that he was the one who took it.

“A fellow phoned the following Monday, an older gentleman, and said that he had taken it. He backed in here and took it and thought it was garbage,” Koenig said. “He thought it was, I don’t know, something historic and he didn’t want to see it go to waste.”

She said the man was very apologetic about taking the burger. He was informed by a neighbour who saw the burger that it was not garbage and that there were posts on the internet looking for information on its wherabouts.